Search stopped working

[ishanib]

This April, we have completed Online Help (OH) release for 20 (twenty) RoboHelp projects for one of our major products using Adobe RoboHelp Version 2022.5.28.

Facing similar issues in Robohelp (Version 2022.5.28) - upgraded Online help versions. 
If the search result is lesser - it does work however for even around 15 results in Search the display is not coming and finally browser hangs. See two screenshots below where I have tried to depict both scenarios.
Search is successful - 

Search not working and OH browser reports to be unresponsive - 

Upgraded OH works fine otherwise.

Please guide.

[Peter Grainge]

@ishanib is referring to this thread https://community.adobe.com/t5/robohelp-discussions/search-stopped-working/td-p/13852327. I think the two issues are likely to be different so I have branched this post into a new thread.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Peter Grainge]

Is this responsive help or frameless help?

Are the projects merged and was search working at one point but is now failing?

Assuming it is a merge, is it set up with the structure described on my site? https://www.grainge.org/RoboHelp/Merged_Help/Merging_New_UI.htm

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[ishanib]

Hello Peter,

Thanks for creating a new discussion thread.

To answer your first query - we are using the following output preset - which I presume is a HTML5 preset (see screenshot belowv as refeence)

For the next query of yours - we have no concept of meged projects. We had initially built our project using Robohelp Classic which has been upgraded from classic to Robohelp 2022 now, we have released our RH2022 upgraded helps in Apr 2025. The help functionality is quite ok so far.

However, came across this search issue recently while searching for keywords in the existing help.

Hope I could answer your queries.

Thanks in advance, looking forward to your assistance.

[Peter Grainge]

So you have 20 projects that all produce their own output and they are not linked in any way. Correct?

Is this problem in each of the projects or just some of them?

If you generate an output from the supplied About RoboHelp sample project, does the search work correctly in that?

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[ishanib]

Hello Peter,

Yes you got me correct for all the 20 upgraded Online help output - we are experiencing the same issue with search functionality as described with screenshot above.

Also note that we have also updated Robohelp to its latest Version 2022.6.0 - in which we found that (Bug ID: 12502) is fixed. However the problem of browser becoming unresponsive when search results are displayed, persists.

However, not sure if this Publishing related bug is relatable to our issue described.

Please guide us further, if possible.

[Peter Grainge]

You haven't answered...

Did the search work at one point and then stop or is this the first time you have generated?

Does the search in the About RoboHelp sample project work OK.

New questions

Does the search work locally after generating or does it only fail when published to a server.

Have you tried deleting everything from the server and publishing afresh.

****************************************

There is a known problem where the help might not work at all but in your case you get results and then it hangs.

Can you share one of the projects? If you can, then see the Contact page on my site and send the project as instructed there. Do make sure you include a link to this thread and please do not email the project direct.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[ishanib]

Hello Peter,

Thanks for your response. Sorry - as I was unable to answer your previous queries.

To answer your queries one by one - 

1. 20 projects that all produce their own output and they are not linked in any way. Correct?
   Our response - 
   In case of all 20 upgraded Online help (OH) output - yes each of the 20 OH produce separate output - they are not linked in any way.
2.  Is this problem in each of the projects or just some of them?
   Our response - 
   The problem reported - where OH Search functionality gets disrupted - prevails for most of the cases of 20 upgraded OH projects.
   (To re-specify issue faced - while performing a search,  if search result is lesser (within 10 to 15 search results dispalyed - search functions.
   However for more search results, even if 15 results displayed in Search - display is not coming and finally browser hangs.
   
3. If you generate an output from the supplied About RoboHelp sample project, does the search work correctly in that?
   or your query
   Does the search in the About RoboHelp sample project work OK. (as per your latest response query)
   Our response- 
   It is not clear as to - how you want us to check the functionality of the About RoboHelp sample project. 
   If not wrong, we are supposed to refer to following project path - right?

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp\resources\data\template\projects\About RoboHelp

Moreover, as per your latest response query list - 

1. Did the search work at one point and then stop or is this the first time you have generated?
   Our response- 
   Not sure about your query here. However, to answer your query to the best of our understanding - search functionality worked fine in the pre-upgrade cases for all of the initial OH outputs hosted on Server.
   However, now it is not working up to the mark - while performing a search,  if search result is within 10 to 15 search results dispalyed - it works as desired.
   For more search results, even if 15 results displayed in Search - display is not coming and finally browser hangs.
   
   To answer your new set of questions
   Does the search work locally after generating or does it only fail when published to a server. 

Our response- 
The Search functionality is working locally.

 Have you tried deleting everything from the server and publishing afresh.
Our response- 
No not attempted anything of this sort currently as all of the 20 upgraded OH s are in LIVE currently.

1. ****************************************

   Also please find our response- on below stated statements of yours - 
   There is a known problem where the help might not work at all but in your case you get results and then it hangs.

   - In our case the scenario of Search function getting disrupted behaves in many different ways, sometimes the browser hangs even without a display of search results getting displayed altogether. (see reference screenshot below in addition to previously shared instances where some results are displayed and the browser hangs once we click on the search result items displayed.)
   

   

   Can you share one of the projects? 
   Our response-
   We will have to check with our technical team how we can share a project - currently Web Page Blocked is displayed when we access URL: wetransfer.com/. However we can access https://fromsmash.com 
   Also please confirm - what do you want us to share - both the source and utput folders of the OH project (as both are stored in different locations as per current RoboHelp requirements)

[Peter Grainge]

When you open RoboHelp, in the bottom left of the dialog you will see Open Sample Project. That is where you open and generate the About RoboHelp sample project. I'll come back to that in a moment.

From your reply it is clear the problem is the server. You say the help works locally so the output from RoboHelp is good. There is a known problem where occasionally the output will be generated to the server and the search does not work at all. The solution to that is usually that the whx folder on the server is deleted and the the output is published again. Your problem is different but it could be worth trying the same solution. 

Re my question about did the search work at some point, forget the Classic version, what I am asking is did the search in the new outputs work at any time. Did they initially work and then fail or has this been a problem since changing to 2022?

Are you publishing to the same folder on the server that you used for the Classic versions? If you are, did you delete all the old versions first? RoboHelp does not delete from the server folder so you would have a mix of old and new.

Now going back to the sample project, I think it is worth you generating the same type of output (Responsive?) and getting IT to let you publish that to another folder on the server. If that has the same issue, then it could be an issue with the server configuration or what is getting to the server. Compare what is in the locally generated folder with what is on the server. It has been known for IT to decide not all the files and folders are needed!

Having written the above, there is one setting that might be worth checking first. In the preset go to the Search settings. Is Enable SubString Search checked? If it is, disable it and try again. That is known to slow down search results.

Please come back when you have tried all the above and let us know where you have got to.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[ishanib]

Thanks for your detailed explanation of the different points above.

To share an update at our end - we have initially tried to delete all files from server for 2 of the 20 upgraded OH outputs. 

The solution seems to have fixed the search function, as desired.

Hope this same fix works for rest of the published help files as well.

Thanks for your time and assistance Peter. 

[ishanib]

Also, replying to your queries below

Re my question about did the search work at some point, forget the Classic version, what I am asking is did the search in the new outputs work at any time. Did they initially work and then fail or has this been a problem since changing to 2022?

Our response-
Yes this problem has occured when we have published the RH2022 upgraded OH files - in the classic version it was perfectly alright.

Are you publishing to the same folder on the server that you used for the Classic versions? If you are, did you delete all the old versions first? RoboHelp does not delete from the server folder so you would have a mix of old and new.

Our response-
Yes we have used the same server folder to publish the RH2022 upgraded OH file and the initial classic version help output.

[Peter Grainge]

You have said you are using the same folder but not whether you deleted the Classic output before uploading the New UI output. However, in another answer you have said the for two projects you have deleted all and then published again, with the desired result.

I am assuming therefore that maybe you didn't empty the folder before and that is the cause of the issue.

Please come back if repeating this for the other outputs.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[ishanib]

Yes as mentioned for two of the newly tested helps we tried deleting the entire folder content and now search is functioning as desired - browser is not turning unresponsive.

However, when we first published our RoboHelp 2022 upgraded helps using the same server location, we had already deleted the older folder content which previously included the Robohelp Classic version content. However not sure why we require to clear it again now to solve this Search issue.

We had initially emptied deployment folder (same folder used in case of both Classic and upgraded version output files)
- because in our understanding folder structure of assets generated in upgraded help is hugely different from assets and file organisation for previouly generated Classic version output - see below screenshots from a sample help for reference 

Classic version output folder content

Upgraded 2022 version output folder content

Anyways as per our current help authoring experience with Adobe Robohelp 2020 and Rh2022 versions (since last 2 years and more) - it is for sure that many more things in the past have occured where Robohelp seems to have created ambiguos results and solutions - which is very frustrating at times there is no ambiguous solution that arises out of anly solution (even when we get solutions from adobe Support - https://adminconsole.adobe.com/8A2038A3663DE1A20A495E41@AdobeOrg/support/support-cases). 

So for the time being I am satisfied with this workaround solution which seems to have worked for us - in this case where Search becomes unresponsive.

[Peter Grainge]

Now I know you did delete the old Classic stuff, there's something else you can try that might work. On the server delete the whx folder, then publish again. That has fixed the problem where the search does not work at all, it might fix your problem where it starts to work.

Try that with another project and post back.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.